by Shayla Black
It was crazy to hope that someday, he would feel free to tell her anything…everything. But she still hoped as she placed her hand in his and squeezed.
“I could swear I have a hole in my stomach.” Thorn’s belly rumbled on cue, and he rubbed a huge hand over his ribbed abdomen. “You wear me out, baby.”
Ditto in double for her. Despite this morning’s scare, every limb in her body felt loose, every muscle relaxed.
Hand in hand, she and Thorn made their way to the table. Cam pulled out a chair, and when she approached it, he drew his arm around her and bent to her, pressing a sweet, lingering kiss to her mouth. Warmth glowed inside her at the casual ease of his affection. What would it be like to have someone so clearly caring in her life who wasn’t a blood relative and didn’t love her because they felt obligated?
Behind her, Thorn’s hand tightened on hers. He edged closer. Shockingly, he was hard again. Cam sidled closer and nudged her lips apart with his own. She stood on her tiptoes to throw her arms around his neck. Surprise, surprise. She could feel his erection beneath the loose gray sweat pants he’d donned.
Someone massaged her back, rubbing their way down with soothing strokes until they cupped her ass. Cam. Thorn was busy working his hands around her waist, up her rib cage…and fondling her breasts with their sore little nipples. They weren’t the only thing sore, and, what do you know? She was getting wet anyway.
Talk about an alternate universe. For someone who hadn’t bothered with men and sex in years, suddenly she’d gorged on two—and apparently wasn’t sated yet. She’d had a bad-girl reputation in high school for sleeping around, looking for that elusive orgasm. But she’d never really lived up to that reputation until now.
Thorn gave her nipple another brush and whispered against her neck. “I’ve never had to make such a tough choice between my belly and my dick.”
Cam laughed. “Let’s eat before it gets cold.”
Brenna sat, Thorn beside her, and Cam brought bacon, hash browns, fresh fruit, eggs, and tortillas. He set a jar of salsa in the middle of the table.
She stared at it, then at him. “What’s that for?”
“Breakfast burritos.” The detective smiled, showing a dimple in one cheek. “Everything’s better with salsa.”
“Yeah, if you want to burn your taste buds off before noon,” Thorn quipped. “I’ve eaten lunch with this guy before. If the food doesn’t make him sweat, he’s not happy.”
“Scandinavian-bred pussy won’t even try the salsa.”
Thorn suggested to Cam that he try something both trite and anatomically impossible.
As they all dug in and began to eat, questions began to whirl through her head. Where was her father? He had to be alive or the goons this morning wouldn’t have come for her. But what sort of trouble was he in? He’d been offered immunity for his testimony, Cam had said. But what black things had he done?
The guys were silent, slaves to shoving in calories. Brenna knew she should eat a few more bites, suspecting—and hoping—she’d need the energy later.
“What’s wrong?” Cam asked between enormous bites of food.
“Those men this morning…they want to kill my father.”
Cam hesitated, shot Thorn a glance. Brenna noticed that the bounty hunter gave a quick nod.
He nodded back. “You should know what you’re up against. Your father worked for Julio Marco. They were in the business of smuggling illegal aliens across the Mexico-Arizona border, then turning them into slaves.”
“I got that from the paper, but slaves? Real-life slaves?”
“Anything from servants to sweatshop workers to prostitutes.”
“My father promised these people safe passage across the border, then imprisoned them and forced them to….” Horror seeped through her. What kind of man did that make him? Then again, what kind of man abandoned his baby by leaving her with a woman she’d never met?
Cam laid a hand over hers. “I know he smuggled them in and he knew, at least roughly, what was happening after that. But exactly, no. Marco wouldn’t allow that. He’s the ringleader and the asshole we really want behind bars. Your father is just a hired gun who paid attention. He has critical information, and when I arrested him, he promised to sing like a bird if we cut him slack. The district attorney agreed to the deal, we took his sworn statement, and we told him to lay low. I’m not supposed to know this, but the feds were talking about Witness Protection, so I’m thinking he made them the same deal.”
And the trial started in five days. Brenna swallowed.
“Before all the deals were done, he called me to bail his ass out of jail,” Thorn groused. “I need to find him. I’m not interested in being out fifty K. My brother told me not to take his bond…”
“I can’t look all the victims of this scam in the eye if I don’t bring your dad in to testify. I promised them justice, and I can’t not deliver.”
“Can you help us find him, baby?”
After hearing the vile things her father had been up to, she didn’t think she owed him silence. He’d warned her about dirty cops being after him, but Cam was no more a dirty cop than she was a lumberjack.
“Like I said before, all I have is a cell phone number. He never answers it. I always leave a message. Sometimes he calls back…”
Sometimes he didn’t. With their grim nods, it was clear Cam and Thorn got the message.
“Would you try him now?” Cam asked. “I think you should tell him that some of his friends tried to force you to go with them for an involuntary visit.”
Brenna hesitated then nodded. She hated calling Curtis. But to help Cam and Thorn, and all of her father’s victims, she’d do it twenty times over.
Quickly, she retrieved her purse and dug out her cell phone. Sure enough, after four rings, the voice mail took over. It was stupid to hope that one day he’d answer the phone and be happy to hear from her. Somehow, the electronic voice leaving her voice mail instructions always depressed her.
After the beep, she told her dad about the morning’s danger, indicated that she was with Cameron, and asked for a call back.
As soon as she flipped the phone shut, she looked up to find Cam staring at her with traces of pity. Thorn looked like he was suppressing a healthy dose of anger.
“I’m sorry I can’t just…produce him,” she defended, rising from her chair.
Truth was, she was a little hurt by Thorn’s silent accusation. True, he wasn’t the most sensitive guy on the planet, but for him to basically blame her…
As she walked away from the table, a strong grip clapped around her arm and tugged her back. With a whoomp, she fell back into Thorn’s lap.
Anger churning through her, she flashed a glare at him, itching for a fight. Instead, his face was contrite.
“Baby, I’m not mad at you. I’m mad for you. I know a thing or two about shitty fathers.”
A personal comment from Thorn? Even Cameron looked mildly surprised that he’d divulged something about himself.
“What?” Thorn defended. “I may come off like an asshole, but I’m not completely heartless. When you look at me with those doe eyes, a heartbeat from tears, I’m as human as the next guy.”
Brenna curled up on his lap and brushed a soft kiss across his mouth.
“Tell me why you came to visit him,” Cam asked, observing Thorn kiss her neck and palm her ass.
It should be weird to be touching one of her lovers while the other watched. Oddly, it seemed like the most normal thing in the world.
“I actually came out here to…figure Curtis out. Figure us out. My problem…” She blushed.
“Which doesn’t seem to be much of a problem with us.” Thorn grinned and popped a piece of cantaloupe in his mouth.
Brenna’s cheeks grew hotter. “No, it doesn’t. But the issue caused me to lose a fiancé. Tony was a great guy, and I…” She shrugged. “I was clingy and convinced he was going to leave. About six months ago, he did, and I was crushed but not surprised. A
fter that, I started really thinking about my life. I read some self-help books, talked to a friend. And I realized my dad’s departure from my life was hanging me up in a lot of ways, but especially sexually.”
“Your ex’s loss is our gain, and I don’t want you to worry; we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”
“At least until my father shows up.”
Cameron stood and towered above her. Brenna looked up, up, up until she met his solemn, dark eyes.
“I’m not sure that changes anything for me. When I first met you, you got under my skin right away. After last night…you’ve only managed to sink deeper. I’m in no hurry to leave.”
She tried not to gape at him. “But last night, we… I… I mean, both of you, and—”
“Yes, you made love with both of us last night and again this morning. Are you going to try to tell me that you have no sense of connection to us?”
And be honest? “No. I just never expected… I never imagined that you’d share my feelings.”
He smiled and stroked her hair. “You’re damn hard to resist. The woman who met me at the door, gun in hand, after beating the stuffing out of a punching bag, showed me a needy side that night we watched you by the pool. Last night, we saw your tenacious side, your sexual side, when you trusted us with your body. And just now, you showed your vulnerable, trusting side when you told us about your relationship with your father. You don’t hide yourself, and I love it.”
Cameron’s words slid so sweet through her, intoxicating, like good champagne. Everything was happening so fast, and the cautious woman who’d stepped off the plane a few days ago had been stripped bare—literally and figuratively. Her emotions split open, her sexuality tested like never before. She felt both free and terrified. What happened now?
“You surprised me, too,” she admitted. “Cop with an attitude one minute, male sex therapist the next.” She turned to Thorn. “You too, Mr. Badass Biker. When you call me ‘baby’ the way you do, I hear your inner teddy bear. You covered me with the blanket earlier, didn’t you?”
Thorn didn’t reply. Instead, the line of his jaw tensed—just like the shoulders beneath her hands. Uh oh.
“I know you don’t want me to care, but—”
“I don’t. I want to fuck. You and the good detective can continue your love fest after the condom is off, I’ve zipped my pants, and found the door.”
She’d known it was coming just by the look on his face. She searched those blue eyes so like a frozen Scandinavian lake. He wasn’t annoyed or unmoved or offended. Lurking deep in his eyes was fear.
Brenna had to bite her lip not to reassure him. He wasn’t in a place where he could be cajoled now. It took time to develop trust, and she’d bet someone had burned him bad. Caring and time— She stopped the thought. Time was the one thing they didn’t have much of.
Five days. That’s all she and Cam had to win Thorn over. If he hung around that long.
Why winning him over mattered, she didn’t know. Technically, she was supposed to get on a plane and return home in a handful of days. Her life, such as it was, was back in Muenster. Her waitressing job awaited. True, it was a job she hated and she made lousy money…
Brenna sighed. Well, her aunt and cousins were the only family she had beyond Curtis. Leaving them… Would be no big deal. She’d lived with them since childhood but had never been a part of them. No matter how they tried to integrate her into their tight-knit clan, she’d always known she wasn’t one of them. Was infringing. Sponging. The older she’d gotten, the more aware of it she’d become.
Last Christmas had been excruciating. Her aunt glowing in the face of her three married sons, two of them with wives expecting, had been heaven and hell. She was happy for Josh, Bryan, and Billy. They were great guys who deserved all the best. But every time the family gathered, their happiness just underscored her deficiencies and put a glaring neon light on the reasons she wasn’t married. Worse, Curtis’s phone call had been impersonal, not at all like the hugs the rest of her family shared. She was an afterthought and that reality was nails to her chalkboard.
What did she really have to go back to? Not her superficial friendships. Not her rundown apartment. Nothing.
Did she dare try to turn this stress-induced affair with Cam and Thorn into something more permanent? Good question. An even better question was, would she be miserable if she didn’t try and just went home to her nothing life, always wondering ‘what if’?
Absolutely.
But what if Thorn couldn’t be swayed? What if his heart had been too damaged by whatever haunted him? It was possible. He’d looked way more terrified of his own emotional vulnerability than the goons with the guns this morning. Maybe the smartest thing would be to stay with just Cam. When it came to matters of the heart, she and Cam seemed to be on the same page.
But without Thorn, it wouldn’t be the same. She was probably crazy to contemplate scheming her way into a relationship with two men. It would always be complicated. Her aunt and cousins would never approve. She didn’t care. Her gut told her she’d be happy.
First, she had to conquer Thorn’s fear.
Her aunt had always said that the quickest way to a man’s heart was either through his stomach—or his penis. She was great in the kitchen and gaining confidence in the bedroom. Thorn was going to get to see how much.
It was definitely time for a plan.
Chapter Nine
Brenna swallowed, lifted her chin, and sent him a proud glare before turning to Cameron beside him. “I’m going to grab a shower, if that’s okay.”
Thorn resisted the urge to wince when Cam shot him a nasty glower, then reached out to cup her shoulder in tender concern. “Sure. There are towels stacked up on the counter. Plenty of shampoo and soap. Lotion is under the sink, if you want some after your bath. As my father’s people always said, ‘mi casa es su casa.’”
“Thanks. I’ll make myself at home. Temporarily. I don’t want to intrude for long.”
Cam opened his mouth to rebut her, but Brenna had already gone, her shoulders in a dejected set, long hair brushing the small of her back.
As soon as a soft snick revealed the door shut behind her, Cam turned to him with a look that could have melted diamonds. So the mild-mannered detective had a temper. Fine time to find that out… Aw, hell. It didn’t matter what Cam said. Thorn didn’t think he could feel any worse than he’d already made himself feel.
“Don’t say it,” he warned Cam.
“Oh, I’m not only going to say it, I’m going to carve it into your forehead, prick. Did you hear yourself? ‘I want to fuck. You and the good detective can continue your love fest after the condom is off, I’ve zipped my pants, and found the door.’” Cam’s voice dripped with incredulity. “Could you make her feel any more like a whore? She’s spent her whole adult life having trouble climaxing because Curtis hurt her and she feared abandonment, then you announce you’re going to leave her in the most crass way possible. She all but tells you that she cares about you, and you crap all over her and tell her she’s just a fuck?” Cam backed up. “Unreal, asshole. Totally unreal.”
“I’ll take care of her from here on out,” Cam went on. “I’ll call you when we find Curtis. You can take him in and get your money and go back to sleeping with a different woman every other night until you’re too old to attract a woman or catch some damn disease. Either way, you’re going to die alone, and clearly, you want it that way. Guess what? I’m going to help you. Get the hell out.”
The detective turned to leave.
Stunned and silent, Thorn stared. Cam had always been somewhere between understanding and easygoing. Thorn knew he was high strung and came off like a motherfucker. He didn’t mean it, exactly. Mostly he didn’t give a shit about anything or anyone. But when he did… Well, he didn’t really know how to deal with it, much less how to show it. Or worse, how to talk about it.
Trying to dissect his feelings with a crack-addict, drug-dealing father and an abs
ent brother hadn’t taught him a lot in the sensitivity department.
The truth was, Brenna did matter. More than he was comfortable saying. Admitting it would give her the power to hurt him, and he liked kink, but pain wasn’t his thing. But the thought of leaving her to Cam and never seeing her again—leaving Cam himself—was as welcome as a vise for his balls.
“Wait,” he rasped out. “I…” I what?
Cam whirled back, and still Thorn didn’t know what to say.
“Spit it out,” Cam demanded.
But Thorn couldn’t. He swallowed, stared, searching for words in a suddenly empty head.
“You want to stay?”
Thorn scowled against a hammer of pain but nodded.
God, Cam could read his mind now, too? He hated feeling so damn…inadequate and bottled up. Cam continued to look at him as if he was a lower life-form, damn it. It wasn’t like he was having a party in his own fucking skin.
With a roar, Thorn turned and punched the nearest door. It hurt like hell, and he shook his fist. But the truth was, he still hurt inside worse.
“You break my door, I don’t care. You’ll be fixing it. But if you stay and you break her heart, I swear I’ll rip you a new asshole—for starters.”
Thorn took a deep breath. Another. There was a beast…something very angry that was awake and running amok inside him. He’d fucked up, and he knew it. What he didn’t know was how to fix it. It frustrated him to fury.
“I don’t want to break her heart, damn it. I… She started talking about feelings and shit. A part of me was happy, you know? The other part is just… Aw, hell. I panicked. I gave her my standard answer whenever any woman gives me the ‘I want monogrammed towels’ look. Truth is…” He shuffled his feet, took in a deep breath, and went for broke. “I could be with you two more. I wanna be. But I suck at relationships.”
“People get close and you get scared you might have to let someone see the real you, that you might have to be reliable for someone. That you might have to give yourself.” Cam’s eyes narrowed. “You’re afraid of true intimacy.”